Letter XXI. To Mother de Brechard, About to Found the House at Moulins

Discouragement is fhe temptation of temptations: it is no fruit of humility, neither does corporal infirmity justify it. She is to rule on supernatural principles.

About August 1616.*

THE service which you are going to render to Our Lord and his glorious Mother is apostolic; for you are going to collect, my dear daughter, many souls in a congregation, to lead them as a band to the spiritual warfare against the world, the devil, and the flesh, for

• The French says " about the end of 1615." [Tr.]

LET. xxv.] Earlier Letters to Visitation. 141 the glory of God; or, rather, you are going to make a new swarm of bees, which in a new hive will work in divine love, more delicious than honey. Well, then, walk courageously with perfect confidence in the goodness of him who calls you to this holy duty. When did any one hope in God and was confounded? The distrust which you ought to have of yourself is good so long as it serves as a base to the confidence you should have in God; but if ever it lead you to any discouragement, disquiet, sadness, or melancholy, I beseech you to reject it as the temptation of tempta tions, and never permit your spirit to argue and reply in favour of the disquiet or depression of heart to which you may feel yourself tending. For it is a simple and entirely certain truth that God permits many diffi culties to arise in the way of those who undertake his service, but still that he never lets them fall under the burden so long as they rest in him. It is, in a word, the great point in your case, never to employ your spirit to defend and support the temptation to discouragement under any pretext whatever, not even if it should be under the specious pretext of humility. Humility, my dear daughter, refuses offices; but it is not obstinate in its refusal, and when employed by those who have the right, it no longer reasons upon its unworthiness as to that thing, but believes all things, hopes all things, bears all things with charity; it is always simple, is holy humility, and a great follower of obedience; and, as it never dares to think itself can do anything, so it always thinks that obedience can do everything, and as true simplicity humbly refuses charges, true humility exercises them simply.

Your body is a mass of weakness, but charity which is its clothing will cover all. A weakly person excites to a holy considerateness all who know her, and even causes a tenderness of special predilection, provided that she be seen to bear her cross devoutly and sweetly; one must be just as frank in taking and asking remedies as gentle and courageous in bearing the illness. He who can preserve sweetness amid pains and feebleness, and peace amid the worry and multitude of affairs, is almost perfect; and although one finds few, even Religious, who attain to this degree of blessedness, yet there are some, and have been at all times, and we must aspire to this height. Almost everybody finds it easy to practise certain virtues and hard to practise others, and every one argues in favour of the virtue which he practises easily, and tries to exaggerate the difficulties of the virtues which are contrary to it. There were ten virgins, and only five of them had the oil of sweet mercy and mildness. This equableness of humour, this gentleness and sweetness of heart, is rarer than perfect chastity; but it is all the more desirable for that. I recommend it to you, my dear daughter, because to it as to the oil of the lamp is attached the flame of good example, nothing giving so much edification as sweetness of charity.

Hold the balance duly amongst your 'daughters, so that natural gifts may not make you distribute your affections and kindness unjustly. How many disagreeable persons are there who are very agreeable in the eyes of God. Beauty, gracefulness, the gift of speaking well, often present great attractions to those who live according to their inclinations; charity

LKT. xxvi. ] Earlier Letters to Visitation- 143 regards true virtue, and the beauty of the heart, and spreads itself over all without distinction.

Go, then, my daughter, to the work for which God has raised you up; he will be on your right hand, so that no difficulty may shake you; he will henceforth hold you, so that you may follow his way. Have a courage not only great, but one that will hold out and endure; and to have it, ask it often of him who alone can give it; he will give it you if in simplicity of heart you correspond with grace. Love and peace, and the consolation of the Holy Spirit, be for ever in your soul. Amen.

P.S. — You are my daughter, and with paternal dilection I give you the holy benediction of God. Blessed may you be in going, in staying, in serving God, in serving your neighbour, in humbling yourself down to your nothingness, in keeping yourself within yourself; may God be entirely your all.